WITH THE CROWD.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 2, 3 January 1924, Page 9

WITH THE CROWD.

HOT DAY AT ELLERSLIE. BUST AND SUNSHINE. AT THE EIGHTEEN PEXXY EXD. (Br "TACTFUL.") '■'Can anyone tell mc wliat number that is?"' One of the obliging people alongside produced a binocular glass of the real. Parisian kind, guaranteed genuine -window glass, leather ease thrown in and after screwing up the instrument and his eyes he hazarded that it was a "6" or ail "B." "They'll have us off the course altogether soon," halfgrowled and half-laughed a big man from the bush whose one pleasantry between the races seemed to be to inquire whether any of his friends '•wanted to make a fuss over him?" which it seemed is the latest preliminary to "liquidating." We were sitting on top of the roofless stand among "the outside crowd" at Ellerslie yesterday, and the inquisitive gentleman was trying to decipher the numbers on the nearest result-board—the one across the course in front of the Leger stand. Further north where the cool green lawns, the winter gardens and the other delights are, there is an elaborate iron affair with the results shown in figures that a blind man in the lawn enclosure could read. Coming down to the Leger stand the signal contraption across the course is wooden, and less pretentious, but still it is legible from the Leger stand and lawn. But "among the crowd," among the general public, the humble folk that have their eighteen pence worth, one is hard put to tell what is going on, until the first and second horses and dividends are posted up on the blackboard at the end of the totalisator house. . Without a pair of j field glasses (and naturally they are not common in the 1/0 crowd) reading the nearest signal board is merely guess work to folks in the compound from which the general public views the races at our famed Ellerslie course. In the Good Old Days. It was a good while since I had spent a day '"among the crowd.'" Having pleasant remembrances of the good old days when Mr. Auckland, and his wife and kids used to picnic "under the trees": when Ellerslie was not such a commerciallyminded spot as it has become; when they had those vociferous but amusing gentlemen "the bookies"; .when to get up a family sweep was not an offence; and in a word when a day at Ellerslie was quite an outing —I decided on saving 11/, even declining to -part up with the 3/Mhat the Leger stand wanted, and on looking up the general public in its new habitat. Ellerslie is a charming spot, and it has been called the prettiest course in the Empire, but after yesterday's experience I am convinced* that if" one wishes to hold that impression he must not stray far from the lawn-and-flower end. The public used to be located just outside the «randstand rails. Then, the Leger stand enclosure was made, and the general public is now relegated to.pretty nearly as far down as the turn iuto the straight. * . >so one expects the same privileges for I/O as for the 11/ that is paid for entrance to the grandstand and paddock, "but money has been so lavishly spent on adornment and luxuries that one would nave expected that a little more convenient arrangements would have been made for the man in the. street and women have to take their babies or they cant have a day at Ellerslie at all. Thousands of pounds have been spent on gardens, stands, rooms, lawns, high brick walls, and even elaborate winter garden a la. the Crystal Palace, all of glass, but where the general public gathers the conditions are primitive. One stand has a roof io it, ibut the other is open to the heavens, and it used to be open to the nether regions until they got some corrugated ■iron and applied this under the seats. But even this shade was gratefully sought yesterday by the hot and dusty women. The covered alleyway in the covered stand was also always full of flustered feminines. Still Enjoy It. In front of the totalisator the ground wa3 all dusty like a country road, and many a keen punter had to swallow in one afternoon the peck of dirt that the average man' gets a. life-time to assimilate. This could surely-be remedied by some cheap asphalting. But the main lack on such days as yesterday is shade. Siirelv some of the thousands of pounds that "have been spent on other parts. of the course could have been spared for this rather dismal end where the "eighteen-peneers" take their pleasure. And in spite of the discomforts they do get a remendouß lot of amusement out "of the event. Of the finish they have an entirely stern,view; of the j immediate Teault they mainly ness beI cause the nearest sinal board is too far to be read with ease except by people endowed with telescope v eyes; the whole ground is more or less dusty; there is very little shelter for the women; and still it is doubtful whether more genuine pleasure could have been seen on the ground. Surely these long-suffering people should get a little more consideration. The crowd is, as a rule, singularly inarticulate, but there w-as at least one other indignant man yesterday. "It's a jolly, shame," he said, as he mopped a hot and perspiring brow; "there ought to be a fountain, or at least a drinking tap where these women and children can get a drink of water. I'll write to the -papers about it!" Yes, he was an Englishman, and he threatened to take the Englishman's time-honoured method of getting redress, and I quite expect to see his threat carried out. He was certainly hot about it, in more senses than one. Merry But Sober. Comparing the crowd with the old-time crowds to which I had been used, I must say that it was most orderly, and I only noticed one drunken man—a few more being merry but not offensively so. They were a well-dressed crowd, with obviously a few pounds to hazard, and, though keen on the machine, they were something more than mere gamblers. To an outsider their knowledge of horses, form, weights, times, and the other intricacies that go to make up the fascination of the game, was extensive and and they discussed things with more gusto than their fellow punters at the other and more expensive end of the straight. They were a good-humoured crowd, and everyone seemed to be too busy to indulge in the little asides that used to make the job of the police no sinecure in the bad old days. The only heated words I heard came from a couple of Maori women—the aboriginals of the country are all born gamblers—who had fallen out over something or other. The first lady was administering sustenance to her picaninny in the manner Dr. Tniby King says should :be.' universal, and meanwhile'.shcnvae giving the second, lady a considerable piece ol her mind.